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Evidence for an aggressive (and delinquent) personality
Author(s) -
Rushton J. Philippe,
Erdle Stephen
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
british journal of social psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.855
H-Index - 98
eISSN - 2044-8309
pISSN - 0144-6665
DOI - 10.1111/j.2044-8309.1987.tb00765.x
Subject(s) - psychology , aggression , personality , variance (accounting) , social psychology , juvenile delinquency , developmental psychology , accounting , business
An aggressive (and delinquent) personality can be shown to exist when observations are made across a large enough sampling of exemplars. Arguments against the existence of such a personality are based on a failure to use sufficiently aggregated measures. Numerous estimates are preferable in order to average out idiosyncratic variance thereby leaving a clearer view of underlying dimensions of behaviour. We illustrate the usefulness of this principle and suggest that consistent patterns of individual and group differences in aggression are to be found, are associated with delinquent behaviour, and are moderately heritable.